EU ongelukkig met bezoek Poetin aan Abchazië (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU has said that Russia is contributing to instability in South Caucasus by treating Georgian separatists in Abkhazia as if they were a real country.
"Vladimir Putin has paid a visit to the Georgian region of Abkhazia without prior consent of the Georgian authorities. The EU does not consider this visit compatible with the principle of territorial integrity nor helpful for international efforts to stabilise the region," the Swedish EU presidency said in a statement on Thursday (13 August).
Mr Putin on Wednesday received a hero's welcome in Abkhazia, with women at a war memorial chanting songs in his honour and a mother in hospital giving his name to her newborn son.
Regional tension was highlighted the same day when two people died in a bomb explosion in the Abkhazian town of Gagra.
Russia recognised the independence of Abkhazia and fellow breakaway region South Ossetia after a brief war with Georgia last year.
Only Nicaragua followed suit, while traditional Russian allies such as Belarus and Uzbekistan have so far opted to stick with the international mainstream.
The EU last month issued a similar statement after Russian president Dmitry Medvedev dropped in to South Ossetia. But Mr Putin's timing could be calculated to give EU leaders an extra poke in the eye over last year's peace accords.
The Russian prime minister arrived in Abkhazia on the one year anniversary of the "Six-Point Plan" brokered by French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
One of the six pillars was for Russian forces to be "pulled back on the line, preceding the start of hostilities."
Russian troop numbers have instead climbed to over 3,600 in Abkhazia over the past 12 months, with Mr Putin on Wednesday announcing he would spend a further €350 million on expanding military and border installations in the territory.
"Abkhazia needs no other recognition except by Russia," he said, newswires report.
Some analysts see Russian strategy in Georgia as designed to repel US military encroachment into its old sphere of influence, rather than to counter political and economic EU integration.
The US has declined to rearm the Georgian military since the 2008 conflict. But the Pentagon on Thursday said it will send in military experts to help train a Georgian battalion for action in Afghanistan.
"This is delicate for us," a US official told the New York Times. "We don't want to be perceived incorrectly as supplying lethal capabilities that would elicit a Russian response."
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